Mutant Tyrosine Repressor, a Gene Encoding the Same, and a Method for Producing L-Dopa

ABSTRACT

A mutant tyrosine repressor that does not require tyrosine to induce expression of tyrosine phenol-lyase gene is obtained by introducing a mutation into a tyrosine repressor. A microorganism which is able to express large amounts of tyrosine phenol-lyase is obtained by introducing the mutant tyrosine repressor into the microorganism. The microorganism is useful for producing L-DOPA.

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 to Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-95147, filed Mar. 29, 2004, and under 35 U.S.C. §120 as a continuation to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/091,914, filed Mar. 29, 2005, the contents of both of which are incorporated by reference in their entireties. The Sequence Listing filed electronically herewith is also hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety (File Name: US-219C_Seq_List_Copy_(—)1; File Size: 18 KB; Date Created: Sep. 13, 2007).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a mutant tyrosine repressor that does not require tyrosine to induce expression of a tyrosine phenol-lyase gene. The present invention also relates to a gene encoding the mutant tyrosine repressor, and utilization thereof. The mutant tyrosine repressor is useful in the field of fermentation, for example, in the production of L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine, hereinafter, “L-DOPA”.

2. Brief Description of the Related Art

L-DOPA is a precursor of dopamine. Dopamine is a nerve transmitter and is useful as a therapeutic agent for Parkinson's disease, and so forth. L-DOPA has conventionally been manufactured by chemical synthesis. In recent years, however, L-DOPA is enzymatically synthesized from catechol and serine, or catechol, pyruvic acid, and ammonia using tyrosine phenol-lyase (TPL).

TPL is known to be produced by a wide variety of microorganisms, including those belonging to the genus Escherichia, Pseudomonas, Flavobacterium, Bacillus, Serratia, Xanthomonas, Agrobacterium, Achromobacter, Aerobacter, Erwinia, Proteus, Salmonella, Citrobacter, Enterobacter, Pantoea, or the like (Japanese Patent No. 2521945 or Japanese Patent Publication (Kokoku) No. 6-98003). Enzymatic characteristics of TPL have also been elucidated (Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 33, 10 (1963)). Furthermore, nucleotide sequences of the structural gene and an upstream region of the TPL gene from Erwinia bacteria, which highly expresses TPL, have been reported (Suzuki, H. et al., J. Ferment. Bioeng., 75, No. 2, 145-148 (1993)).

It is known that expression of TPL is regulated by a tyrosine repressor. That is, the tyrosine repressor is activated when tyrosine binds to it, and thereby expression of the TPL gene is induced. The structure of the tyrosine repressor gene has been elucidated for Escherichia coli (Cornish, E. C. et al., J. Biol. Chem., 261, 403-410 (1986)). Furthermore, the inventors of the present invention successfully isolated a gene encoding a tyrosine repressor from Erwinia bacteria and reported that the tyrosine repressor has an activity of positively regulating expression of the TPL gene (U.S. Pat. No. 6,146,878).

Production of L-DOPA using microbial cells has also been attempted. To efficiently produce L-DOPA, it is important to use a microorganism which expresses a high amount of TPL. The addition of large amounts of tyrosine to a culture medium is required since tyrosine induces the expression of TPL. However, the extremely low solubility of tyrosine in water causes a large amount of tyrosine, which can contaminate the L-DOPA reaction system during cultivation, resulting in difficulty purifying and isolating L-DOPA. To solve this problem, a mutant tyrosine repressor that is able to express a high amount of TPL in the presence of small amounts of tyrosine has been developed (Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2001-238678). However, this mutant expresses TPL more efficiently when tyrosine is added, and therefore development of a microorganism that expresses large amounts of TPL in the absence of tyrosine is desired.

The microorganisms disclosed as Erwinia herbicola in U.S. Pat. No. 6,146,878 and Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2001-238678 and so forth have been reclassified into Pantoea agglomerans. Therefore, the aforementioned Erwinia herbicola will be referred to as Pantoea agglomerans hereinafter.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a novel technique utilizing a mutant tyrosine repressor gene. Specifically, an object of the present invention is to provide a mutant tyrosine repressor that expresses a sufficient amount of a tyrosine phenol-lyase (TPL) gene in the absence of tyrosine, and to provide a gene encoding the same and a method of producing L-DOPA utilizing these.

The inventors of the present invention introduced various mutations into the tyrosine repressor gene and analyzed the activity of the obtained mutant tyrosine repressors. As a result, they found that, whereas a small amount of TPL gene was expressed by a wild-type tyrosine repressor in the absence of tyrosine, a sufficient amount of TPL was expressed by the mutant tyrosine repressor having replacements of the valine residue at position 67, the tyrosine residue at position 72, the glutamic acid residue at position 201, the asparagine residue at position 324, and so forth, even in the absence of tyrosine. Furthermore, they found that L-DOPA could be efficiently produced by using a microorganism having such a mutant tyrosine repressor, and thus accomplished the present invention.

That is, the present invention provides the following:

It is an object of the present invention to provide a mutant tyrosine repressor, wherein said mutant tyrosine repressor does not require tyrosine to induce expression of a tyrosine phenol-lyase gene.

It is an object of the present invention to provide mutant tyrosine repressor comprising a wild-type tyrosine repressor having mutations at positions of at least two of the following (a) to (c):

(a) position 67, position 72, and position 201, (b) position 324, and (c) position 503.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide the mutant tyrosine repressor as described above, wherein said mutation at position 67 is an alanine, said mutation at position 72 is a cysteine, said mutation at position 201 is a glycine, said mutation at position 324 is an aspartic acid, and said mutation at position 503 is a threonine.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide the mutant tyrosine repressor as described above, wherein said mutant tyrosine repressor includes substitution, deletion, insertion, addition or inversion of one or several amino acid residues at a position other than the positions listed in (a), (b), or (c) above, and wherein said mutant tyrosine repressor does not require tyrosine to induce expression of a tyrosine phenol-lyase gene.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide the mutant tyrosine repressor as described above, wherein said wild-type tyrosine repressor is a wild-type Pantoea agglomerans tyrosine repressor.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide the mutant tyrosine repressor as described above comprising an amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a DNA encoding said mutant tyrosine repressor as described above.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide an Escherichia or Pantoea bacterium which is transformed with said DNA as described above.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide the Escherichia or Pantoea bacterium as described above, further comprising a structural gene operably linked to a tyrosine phenol-lyase gene promoter.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method for producing tyrosine phenol-lyase comprising (a) culturing said Escherichia or Pantoea bacterium as described above in a medium, and (b) collecting said tyrosine phenol-lyase.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide the method for producing tyrosine phenol-lyase as described above, wherein said bacterium is cultured in the absence of tyrosine.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method for producing L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine comprising (a) allowing the Escherichia or Pantoea bacterium as described above to act on a mixture selected from the group consisting of (1) catechol, pyruvic acid and ammonia, and (2) catechol and serine and (b) collecting said L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide the method for producing L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine as described above, wherein said bacterium is grown in the absence of tyrosine.

In the present specification, a tyrosine repressor having the aforementioned mutations may be referred to as a “mutant tyrosine repressor,” and a DNA encoding such a mutant tyrosine repressor may be referred to as a “mutant tyrosine repressor gene.” Furthermore, a tyrosine repressor not having the aforementioned mutations may be referred to as a “wild-type tyrosine repressor.” Tyrosine repressor may be referred to as “TyrR”.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows the construction procedure for the plasmid pAH175.

FIG. 2 shows the construction procedure for the plasmid pAH176.

FIG. 3 shows the construction procedure for the plasmid pAH178.

FIG. 4 shows the construction procedure for the plasmid pAH170.

FIG. 5 shows the construction procedure for the plasmid pAH172.

FIG. 6 shows the construction procedure for the plasmid pAH177.

FIG. 7 shows TPL activity per unit cell weight of the strains transformed with a wild-type or mutant tyrR gene in the presence (A) or absence (B) of tyrosine.

FIG. 8 shows construction of the Φ(tpl‘-’lacZ) reporter plasmid.

FIG. 9 shows ability of mutant TyrR to activate transcription of Φ(tpl‘-’lacZ). LB+Y denotes tyrosine-added LB medium, and LB+F denotes phenylalanine-added LB medium.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail. The mutant tyrosine repressor (TyrR) of the present invention has the amino acid sequence of a wild-type tyrosine repressor except that one or several amino acid residues are replaced, and the mutant repressor does not require tyrosine to induce expression of tyrosine phenol-lyase (TPL) gene. The term “several” used herein means preferably 2 to 20, more preferably 2 to 10, particularly preferably 2 to 5 amino acids. Furthermore, the phrase “does not require tyrosine to induce expression of tyrosine phenol-lyase (TPL) gene” means that expression of the TPL gene occurs in the absence of tyrosine, or the expression level of the TPL gene occurs at a minimum value comparable to or higher than the expression level in the presence of sufficient tyrosine usually required to induce expression of the TPL gene (e.g., 0.2%). The term “minimum value” used herein refers to, for example, a concentration of 0.01% or lower, preferably 3.0×10⁻³% or lower.

Furthermore, the phrase “comparable to or higher than” means that an expression level in the absence of tyrosine, or at a minimum value is preferably 60% or more, more preferably 80% or more, particularly preferably 100% of an expression level usually required with tyrosine present to induce expression of TPL gene. The ability of a mutant tyrosine repressor to induce expression of the TPL gene can be determined by, for example, expressing a mutant tyrosine repressor gene in a cell which expresses the TPL gene, quantifying, and comparing the amount of mRNA of TPL in the absence of tyrosine or a minimum value as well as a typical tyrosine concentration. The ability to induce expression can also be indirectly examined by determining the TPL activity of the cell transformed with a mutant tyrosine repressor. The TPL activity can be determined by, for example, measuring absorbance at 370 nm of a reaction solution containing a synthesized substrate as shown in the Examples.

The mutant tyrosine repressor of the present invention is not particularly limited so long as it does not require tyrosine to induce expression of the TPL gene, and specific examples thereof include a mutant tyrosine repressor having an amino acid sequence of the wild-type tyrosine repressor except that at least two of the following (a), (b), or (c) amino acid mutations are present at the following positions:

(a) position 67, position 72, and position 201

(b) position 324

(c) position 503.

That is, examples of the mutant tyrosine repressor of the present invention include (1) a mutant tyrosine repressor having an amino acid sequence in which the valine residue at position 67, the tyrosine residue at position 72, the glutamic acid residue at position 201, and the asparagine residue at position 324 are replaced with other amino acids, (2) a mutant tyrosine repressor having an amino acid sequence in which the valine residue at position 67, the tyrosine residue at position 72, the glutamic acid residue at position 201, and the alanine residue at position 503 are replaced with other amino acids, (3) a mutant tyrosine repressor having an amino acid sequence in which the valine residue at position 67, the tyrosine residue at position 72, the glutamic acid residue at position 201, the asparagine residue at position 324, and the alanine residue at position 503 are replaced with other amino acids, and (4) a mutant tyrosine repressor having an amino acid sequence in which the asparagine residue at position 324 and the alanine residue at position 503 are replaced with other amino acids.

Amino acids which replace the native amino acid residues at the aforementioned positions are not particularly limited so long as a mutant tyrosine repressor having such replacements does not require tyrosine to induce expression of the TPL gene. However, it is preferred that the valine residue at position 67 is replaced with alanine, the tyrosine residue at position 72 is replaced with cysteine, the glutamic acid residue at position 201 is replaced with glycine, the asparagine residue at position 324 is replaced with aspartic acid, and the alanine residue at position 503 is replaced with threonine.

In the present invention, examples of the wild-type tyrosine repressor include a tyrosine repressor from Pantoea agglomerans. The tyrosine repressor from Pantoea agglomerans may be a tyrosine repressor from a microorganism previously classified as Erwinia herbicola. As a wild-type tyrosine repressor from Pantoea agglomerans, a protein having the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 2 is preferred.

The mutant tyrosine repressor as mentioned above can be obtained by introducing a mutation that causes the aforementioned amino acid replacements into a DNA encoding a wild-type tyrosine repressor. The mutations can be introduced into target positions by site-directed mutagenesis or the like.

As the DNA encoding a wild-type tyrosine repressor, for example, a DNA encoding a wild-type tyrosine repressor from Pantoea agglomerans having the nucleotide sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 1 can be used. For example, the DNA can be obtained by PCR using oligonucleotides based on the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 from a chromosomal DNA or genomic DNA library of Pantoea agglomerans, or by hybridization using a probe having a partial sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1.

As described above, some microorganisms once classified as Erwinia herbicola have been reclassified into Pantoea agglomerans. Thus, the genus Erwinia is very closely related to the genus Pantoea, and therefore the tyrosine repressor gene may be obtained from a microorganism belonging to either the genus Erwinia or Pantoea. Furthermore, a tyrosine repressor gene may be obtained from bacteria belonging to a genus other than Erwinia or Pantoea, for example, Escherichia bacteria such as Escherichia coli, in the same manner as described above.

The mutant tyrosine repressor of the present invention may be a mutant tyrosine repressor having an amino acid sequence which includes substitution, deletion, insertion, addition or inversion of one or several amino acid residues at position(s) other than the aforementioned positions so long as tyrosine is not required to induce expression of the TPL gene. Although the number represented by the term “several” as used herein may differ depending on the position and type of amino acid residue in the three-dimensional structure of the protein, it is preferably 2 to 20, more preferably 2 to 10, and particularly preferably 2 to 5.

Substitution of amino acids is preferably a conserved substitution including substitution of ser or thr for ala, substitution of gln, his or lys for arg, substitution of glu, gln, lys, his or asp for asn, substitution of asn, glu or gln for asp, substitution of ser or ala for cys, substitution of asn, glu, lys, his, asp or arg for gln, substitution of gly, asn, gln, lys or asp for glu, substitution of pro for gly, substitution of asn, lys, gln, arg or tyr for his, substitution of leu, met, val or phe for ile, substitution of ile, met, val or phe for leu, substitution of asn, glu, gln, his or arg for lys, substitution of ile, leu, val or phe for met, substitution of trp, tyr, met, ile or leu for phe, substitution of thr or ala for ser, substitution of ser or ala for thr, substitution of phe or tyr for trp, substitution of his, phe or trp for tyr and substitution of met, ile or leu for val.

Furthermore, the mutant tyrosine repressor of the present invention may include the amino acid replacements in the aforementioned positions while having a homology of 80% or more, preferably 90% or more, particularly preferably 95% or more to the whole amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2, so long as tyrosine is not required to induce expression of the TPL gene. Homology of the amino acid sequences can be determined using the algorithm BLAST (Pro. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 90, and 5873 (1993)) and FASTA (Methods Enzymol., 183, and 63 (1990)) by Karlin and Altschul. The BLASTN and BLASTX programs have been developed based on the algorithm BLAST. (refer to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).

The valine residue at position 67, the tyrosine residue at position 72, the glutamic acid residue at position 201, the asparagine residue at position 324 and the alanine residue at position 503 represent the positions in the amino acid sequence of the wild-type tyrosine repressor shown in SEQ ID NO: 2. These positions may be shifted ahead or backward by the aforementioned deletion, insertion, addition or inversion of one or several amino acids. For example, if one amino acid residue is inserted into the upstream position, the valine residue originally located at the position 67 shifts to position 68. A DNA encoding a protein substantially identical to the aforementioned mutant tyrosine repressor can be obtained by mutating the nucleotide sequence of the mutant tyrosine repressor gene, for example, with site-directed mutagenesis so that the amino acid sequence of the protein encoded by the nucleotide sequence contains substitution, deletion, insertion, addition or inversion of one or several amino acid residues at positions other than the aforementioned positions.

The aforementioned mutated gene can also be obtained by a conventionally known mutagenesis treatment. Examples of mutagenesis treatments include treating a DNA encoding a mutant tyrosine repressor in vitro with hydroxylamine or the like, irradiating a microorganism such as Pantoea bacteria harboring a DNA encoding a mutant tyrosine repressor with ultraviolet rays, or treating such a microorganism with a mutagenesis agent typically used in mutation treatments such as N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (NTG) and nitrous acid and so forth. Furthermore, the aforementioned DNA can be obtained by the error-prone PCR disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2001-238678.

Furthermore, the mutations causing substitution, deletion, insertion, addition or inversion of amino acid residues other than the aforementioned positions may be naturally occurring mutations which occur due to differences of genera or species or individual differences of strains of the microorganism harboring a tyrosine repressor (mutant or variant).

A DNA encoding a protein which is substantially identical to the mutant tyrosine repressor and does not require tyrosine to induce expression of the TPL gene can be selected by expressing a mutated DNA in an appropriate cell and examining the expression product tyrosine repressor activity, for example, positive regulation of expression of the TPL gene.

The DNA encoding a mutant tyrosine repressor of the present invention may encode a mutant tyrosine repressor having the amino acid replacements in the aforementioned positions and which hybridizes to a DNA having a nucleotide sequence of the numbers 442 to 2004 in the SEQ ID NO: 1 under stringent conditions, so long as the repressor encoded by the DNA does not require tyrosine to induce expression of the TPL gene. The term “stringent condition” used herein refers those under which a so-called specific hybrid is formed, but a nonspecific hybrid is not formed. Although it is difficult to numerically define this condition, examples thereof include washing one time, preferably two or three times, at salt concentrations of 1×SSC, 0.1% SDS at 65° C., preferably 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS at 65° C.

Although the DNAs hybridizing under such conditions include a DNA in which a stop codon has been generated, and a DNA which encodes a protein having a reduced or lost activity due to a mutation at the active site, these DNAs can be readily removed by expressing them in a host cell by using a commercially available expression vector and investigating the tyrosine repressor activity of the expression products.

A microorganism introduced with the mutant tyrosine repressor of the present invention can be suitably used for production of a recombinant TPL and production of substances such as L-DOPA. The host microorganism to be transformed with the mutant tyrosine repressor is not particularly limited so long as it expresses the TPL gene. The host microorganism may be a microorganism which inherently expresses the TPL gene, or which has the TPL gene exogenously introduced. The host microorganism may have an inherent tyrR gene disrupted. Examples of the host microorganism to be transformed with the mutant tyrosine repressor include Escherichia bacteria, Pantoea bacteria, and so forth. Examples of the Escherichia bacteria include, but are not limited to, Escherichia coli, and examples of the Pantoea bacteria include, but are not limited to, Pantoea agglomerans and Pantoea ananatis. The aforementioned Pantoea bacteria also include microorganisms which were previously classified as Erwinia bacteria such as Erwinia herbicola and have been reclassified as Pantoea bacteria.

For transformation of the aforementioned mutant tyrosine repressor gene into a microorganism such as Escherichia bacteria or Pantoea bacteria, a recombinant DNA is usually prepared by ligating the gene to a suitable vector. Examples of such a vector include pUC19, pUC18, pBR322, pHSG299, pHSG399, pHSG398, RSF1010, pACYC177, pACYC184, pMW219, pMW118, and so forth.

The recombinant DNA prepared as described above can be transformed into an Escherichia or Pantoea bacterium by known transformation methods. Examples of such transformation methods include treating recipient cells with calcium chloride so as to increase permeability of the DNA, which has been reported for Escherichia coli K-12 (Mandel, M. and Higa, A., J. Mol. Biol., 53, 159 (1970)), preparing competent cells from cells which are at the growth phase, followed by transformation with DNA, which has been reported for Bacillus subtilis (Duncan, C. H., Wilson, G. A. and Young, F. E., Gene, 1, 153 (1977)), and so forth. In addition to these methods, introducing a recombinant DNA into protoplast- or spheroplast-like recipient cells, which have been reported to be applicable to Bacillus subtilis, actinomycetes, and yeasts (Chang, S. and Choen, S. N., Molec. Gen. Genet., 168, 111 (1979); Bibb, M. J., Ward, J. M. and Hopwood, O. A., Nature, 274, 398 (1978); Hinnen, A., Hicks, J. B. and Fink, G. R., Proc. Natl. Sci., USA, 75, 1929 (1978)), can be employed. In addition, transformation of microorganisms can also be performed by the electric pulse method (JP2-207791A).

The aforementioned mutant tyrosine repressor gene may also be integrated into the chromosomal DNA of the host microorganism. Homologous recombination (Experiments in Molecular Genetics, Cold Spring Harbor Lab., 1972) may be used for this purpose, and may be carried out by targeting a sequence which exists in multiple copies on the chromosomal DNA. Repetitive DNA and inverted repeats at an end of a transposon are typically used for this purpose. Alternatively, as disclosed in EP0332488B, it is also possible to incorporate a target gene into a transposon, and allow it to be transferred so that multiple copies of the gene are integrated into the chromosomal DNA. Furthermore, a target gene may also be incorporated into the host chromosome by using Mu phage (EP0332488B).

Expression of the mutant tyrosine repressor gene which has been introduced may be controlled by an inherent promoter of the tyrosine repressor gene. Alternatively, the promoter may be replaced with a stronger promoter such as the lac promoter, trp promoter, trc promoter, tac promoter, P_(R) promoter or P_(L) promoter of lambda phage, tet promoter, and amyE promoter.

As methods for preparation of chromosomal DNA, preparation of chromosomal DNA library, hybridization, PCR, preparation of plasmid DNA, digestion and ligation of DNA, transformation, design of oligonucleotides used as primers and so forth, ordinary methods known to those skilled in the art can be employed. These methods are described in Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E. F. and Maniatis, T., “Molecular Cloning A Laboratory Manual, Second Edition”, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, (1989), and so forth.

A recombinant TPL can be produced by, for example, culturing a microorganism having a gene encoding a mutant tyrosine repressor and a TPL gene in a medium and collecting TPL from the culture or cells. Although the type of culture medium is not particularly limited, so long as the chosen microorganism can grow and produce TPL in the medium, such a medium as shown in the examples can be preferably used. A recombinant TPL may be produced as a fusion protein having a peptide tag for purification. Furthermore, a recombinant TPL is preferably produced in the absence of tyrosine. In the present invention, the phrase “in the absence of tyrosine” includes culture conditions where tyrosine does not exist at all and conditions where tyrosine does not substantially exist. Specific examples of the culture conditions where tyrosine does not substantially exist include a condition whereby the tyrosine concentration is 0.01% or lower, preferably 3.0×10⁻³% or lower.

The recombinant TPL produced as described above may be utilized for the production of L-DOPA using an enzymatic process. That is, L-DOPA can be produced by allowing the obtained TPL to act on “catechol, pyruvic acid and ammonia” or “catechol and serine” to produce L-DOPA and collecting the L-DOPA. The L-DOPA-producing reaction can be performed by, for example, adding TPL to a reaction mixture containing the aforementioned substrates. TPL may be added as a crude enzyme solution. Pyruvic acid and ammonia may be contained in the reaction mixture in the form of salts, that is, pyruvate salt and ammonium salt.

Furthermore, cells of a microorganism having a gene encoding the mutant tyrosine repressor of the present invention may be directly used for the production of L-DOPA. That is, L-DOPA can be produced by allowing the microbial cells grown under a suitable culture condition to act directly on “catechol, pyruvic acid and ammonia” or “catechol and serine” to produce L-DOPA and collecting the produced L-DOPA. The microorganisms may also react with the substrates while they are growing in the medium. Escherichia or Pantoea bacteria usually require tyrosine as an inducer for expression of the TPL gene. However, in the bacteria harboring the mutant tyrosine repressor of the present invention, expression of the TPL gene is induced without addition of tyrosine to the medium. Therefore, in order to prevent contamination of tyrosine in the product, cells cultured in the absence of tyrosine are preferably used. The cells used for the production may be disrupted cells, cell fractions, or immobilized cells.

Furthermore, the mutant tyrosine repressor of the present invention and a gene encoding the repressor can be utilized for regulation of expression of a desired gene. For example, a structural gene encoding a desired protein is operably linked to a promoter of the TPL gene, and the obtained gene construct is introduced into a microorganism. Then, the mutant tyrosine repressor gene of the present invention is also transformed into the microorganism, thereby expression of the desired protein is positively regulated by the mutant tyrosine repressor. Therefore, a desired protein can be efficiently produced by culturing a microorganism which has been transformed in a medium with a mutant tyrosine repressor gene as well as a gene construct containing a structural gene of the desired protein linked to a promoter of the TPL gene. Examples of the TPL gene promoter include a sequence of nucleotide numbers 482 to 800 in SEQ ID NO: 3. The aforementioned gene construct and mutant tyrosine repressor gene may be introduced by using separate vectors, or using a single vector containing the both genes. The TPL gene may also be selected as the desired gene. In this case, TPL expression level in the host cells can be further increased, and therefore the cells can be efficiently used for production of L-DOPA.

EXAMPLES

Hereafter, the present invention will be explained more specifically by referring to the following non-limiting examples. N324D means the asparagine at position 324 has been replaced with aspartic acid. N324D mutation means a mutation causing the N324D replacement. The other replacements and mutations are designated in the same manner.

<1> Preparation of Plasmids

pAH175(N324D)

Plasmid pAH175, which contains the tyrR gene having the N324D mutation, was prepared according to the scheme shown in FIG. 1. A 3.9 kb PvuII fragment of pMW118 (Nippon Gene), and a 2.4 kb SalI (blunt-ended)-SspI fragment of pTK#20 (Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2001-238678) containing a wild-type tyrR gene of the Pantoea agglomerans ATCC 21434 strain were ligated to prepare pTK672. Furthermore, pTK775 (Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 66, 4764-4771 (2000)) containing a wild-type tyrR gene from the Pantoea agglomerans ATCC 21434 strain having the N324D mutation introduced by site-directed mutagenesis using QuikChange Kit (Stratagene), resulting in the plasmid pTK1108. Then, a 4.7 kb fragment obtained by digesting the aforementioned pTK672 with EcoRI, and a 1.6 kb fragment obtained by digesting the aforementioned pTK1108 with EcoRI were ligated to obtain pAH160. Since Pantoea agglomerans is ampicillin-resistant, ampicillin cannot be used as a selection marker. Accordingly, a tetracycline-resistance gene derived from pBR322 (blunt-ended 1.6 kb SspI-PpuMI fragment) was inserted into pAH160 at the ScaI site, and thereby, the plasmid pAH175 was obtained.

(ii) pAH176 (V67A, Y72C, E201G, N324D)

Plasmid pAH176, which contains the tyrR gene having the V67A, Y72C, E201G and N324D mutations, was prepared according to the scheme shown in FIG. 2. Three of the fragments including a PstI-EcoRI fragment (2.3 kb) of pTK775, a PstI-EcoRV fragment (2.6 kb) of pTK775, and an EcoRI-EcoRV fragment (1.1 kb) of pYG5 (pACYC177 having the tyrR5 gene—a mutant-tyrR gene including the V67A, Y72C, E201G mutations—disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2001-238678), were ligated to prepare pTK856. Then, a 5.6 kb fragment obtained by digesting the aforementioned pAH160 with NruI and a 0.7 kb fragment obtained by digesting the aforementioned pTK856 with NruI were ligated to obtain pAH163. Furthermore, a tetracycline-resistance gene was inserted in the same manner as in the above (i), and thereby, the plasmid pAH176 was obtained.

(iii) pAH178 (V67A, Y72C, E201G, N324D, A503T)

Plasmid pAH178, which contains the tyrR gene having the V67A, Y72C, E201G, N324D, and A503T mutations, was prepared according to the scheme shown in FIG. 3. The E275Q mutation was introduced into pTK775 by site-directed mutagenesis to prepare pTK815. tyrR gene fragments amplified by error-prone PCR using the above pTK815 as a template was introduced into pTK774, and clones with an ability to induce increased TPL expression were selected. One of the clones was designated pTK1060, which has the A503T mutation.

The method for constructing a DNA library using pTK774 is described in the aforementioned Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 66, 4764-4771 (2000), Materials and Methods, “the section of random mutagenesis of the tyrR gene using error-prone PCR.” The method for performing error-prone PCR is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2001-238678. Then, a 5.9 kb fragment obtained by digesting the aforementioned pAH163 with PvuII and a 0.4 kb fragment obtained by digesting the aforementioned pTK1060 with PvuII were ligated to obtain pAH164. Furthermore, a tetracycline-resistance gene was inserted in the same manner as in (i), and thereby, the plasmid pAH178 was obtained.

(iv) pAH170 (A503T)

Plasmid pAH170, which contains the tyrR gene having the A503T mutation, was prepared according to the scheme shown in FIG. 4. A 7.3 kb fragment obtained by digesting pTK919 (Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2001-238678) with PvuII and a 0.4 kb fragment obtained by digesting the aforementioned pTK1060 with PvuII were ligated, and thereby, the plasmid pAH170 was obtained.

(V) pAH172 (V67A, Y72C, E201G, A503T)

Plasmid pAH172, which contains the tyrR gene having the V67A, Y72C, E201G and A503T mutations, was prepared according to the scheme shown in FIG. 5. A 7.3 kb fragment obtained by digesting pTK922 (Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2001-238678) with PvuII and a 0.4 kb fragment obtained by digesting the aforementioned pTK1060 with PvuII were ligated, and thereby, the plasmid pAH172 was obtained.

(vi) pAH177 (N324D, A503T)

Plasmid pAH177, which contains the tyrR gene having the N324D and A503T mutations, was prepared according to the scheme shown in FIG. 6. A 7.3 kb fragment obtained by digesting the aforementioned pAH160 with PvuII and a 0.4 kb fragment obtained by digesting the aforementioned pTK1060 with PvuII were ligated, and thereby, the plasmid pAH177 was obtained.

<2> Introduction of Wild-Type or Mutant tyrR Gene into Pantoea agglomerans

The plasmids obtained in the above (i) to (vi), pTK922 containing the tyrR gene having the V67A, Y72C, E201G mutations, and pTK919 containing a wild-type tyrR gene, were respectively introduced into the YG17 strain by the heat shock method (Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2001-238678). The YG17 strain is a tyrR gene-disrupted strain of Pantoea agglomerans (Erwinia herbicola). That is, 200 μL of competent cells was added to 20 μL of a solution containing each of the aforementioned plasmids, placed on ice for 30 minutes and heated to 42° C. for 30 seconds. The cells were added to 800 μL of SOB medium, incubated at 37° C. for 1 hour, then applied to a plate and cultured overnight at 30° C. The strains obtained by this procedure are shown in Table 1. In Table 1, the V67A, Y72C, and E201G mutations are designated as NT, the N324D mutation as Cen, and the A503T mutation as CT.

TABLE 1 Amino acid substitutions contained in each mutant tyrR gene Introduced Amino acid replacements in each strain Strain plasmid Abbreviation V67A Y72C E201G N324D A503T YG40 pTK922 NT ∘ ∘ ∘ AH179 pAH175 Cen ∘ AH180 pAH170 CT ∘ AH181 pAH176 NT Cen ∘ ∘ ∘ ∘ AH182 pAH177 Cen CT ∘ ∘ AH183 pAH172 NT CT ∘ ∘ ∘ ∘ AH184 pAH178 NT Cen CT ∘ ∘ ∘ ∘ ∘ YG38 pTK919 Wild-type

<3> Evaluation of TPL Activity of Each Mutant tyrR Gene-Introduced Strains

These strains and a wild-type strain AJ2985 (ATCC 21434) were each cultured in 100 mL of a medium in the presence or absence of 0.2% tyrosine at 28° C. for 28, 32 or 36 hours with shaking. The composition of the medium is shown in Table 2.

TABLE 2 Composition of the medium used for TPL expression KH₂PO₄ 0.20% MgSO₄•7H₂O 0.10% FeSO₄•7H₂O 0.0010% Pyridoxine hydrochloride 0.010% Glycerol 0.60% Succinic acid 0.50% L-Methionine 0.10% L-Alanine 0.20% Glycine 0.050% L-Phenylalanine 0.10% Soybean protein hydrolysate 1.5% L-Tyrosine (added only to tyrosine added medium) 0.20% pH 7.0 (adjusted with KOH)

COMPOUND-F (Ajinomoto Co., Inc.) was used as the soybean protein hydrolysate. The tyrosine content in this product is estimated to be 1.5±0.15% on the basis of the amino acid composition of the product. Therefore, even when tyrosine was not added, a trace amount (2.25×10⁻³%) of tyrosine is in the medium. However, the presence of tyrosine in such an amount does not cause a substantial problem in the production of L-DOPA by fermentation.

After completion of the culture, the cells were suspended in 10 mM potassium phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) containing 0.2 mM pridoxal-5′-phosphate (PLP), 5 mM 2-mercaptoethanol, and 4 mM EDTA (pH 7.0), and disrupted by ultrasonication. The disrupted cell suspension was dialyzed against a large volume of the aforementioned buffer overnight, and the enzyme solution was thereby prepared. Then, the amount of protein and TPL activity in the enzyme solution were determined.

The quantification of protein was performed by the Lowry method (Lowry, O. H. et al., J. Biol. Chem., 193, 265 (1951)) using bovine serum albumin as a standard. The TPL activity was determined as follows by using chemically synthesized S-o-nitrophenyl-L-cysteine (SOPC) as a substrate. That is, a reaction solution containing 0.2 mM SOPC, 0.1 mM PLP, 5 mM 2-mercaptoethanol, and 100 mM potassium phosphate buffer (pH 8.0) was preincubated in a water bath at 30° C. for 4 minutes. Then, 1 mL of this reaction solution was mixed with 50 μL of the aforementioned enzyme solution. Since SOPC shows maximum absorption at 368 nm, reduction in absorbance at 370 nm was measured (ε=1,860). The amount of enzyme consuming 1 μmole of SOPC per 1 minute was defined as 1 unit. The TPL activity per unit cell weight for each strain relative to the TPL activity per unit cell weight for the wild-type strain cultured in the presence of tyrosine for 36 hours, which was taken as 100, are shown in Table 3 and FIG. 7.

TABLE 3 Activity per unit cell weight With addition of 28 32 36 Without addition of 28 32 36 tyrosine hrs hrs hrs tyrosine hrs hrs hrs YG40 (NT) 65 122 83 YG40 (NT) 45 40 44 AH179 (Cen) 57 63 42 AH179 (Cen) 39 30 34 AH180 (CT) 67 52 55 AH180 (CT) 25 12 31 AH181 (NT Cen) 110 140 176 AH181 (NT Cen) 162 173 159 AH182 (Cen CT) 89 95 98 AH182 (Cen CT) 76 94 100 AH183 (NT CT) 80 106 136 AH183 (NT CT) 60 65 68 AH184 (NT Cen CT) 75 114 104 AH184 (NT Cen CT) 136 140 160 YG38 (WT) 25 33 28 YG38 (WT) 14 19 32 Wild-type strain AJ2985 76 117 100 Wild-type strain AJ2985 5 8 24

When tyrosine was added, the AH181 (NT Cen), AH182 (Cen CT), AH183 (NT CT), and AH184 (NT Cen CT) strains showed a TPL activity comparable to or higher than that of the wild-type strain (AJ2985).

When tyrosine was not added, the AH181 (NT Cen), AH182 (Cen CT), AH183 (NT CT) and AH184 (NT Cen CT) strains showed a TPL activity 10 times higher or more than that of the wild-type strain, which hardly induced TPL activity. From these results, it was found that Pantoea agglomerans transformed with the aforementioned mutant tyrR gene could express a large amount of TPL even when tyrosine was not added to the medium.

SOPC used for the measurement of TPL activity was chemically synthesized and purified by the following procedure:

(1) 100 mL of 10 mM cysteine (dissolved in water) was mixed with 100 mL of 10 mM o-DNB (dissolved in EtOH).

(2) 3 drops of 28% aqueous ammonia was added to the above mixture and incubated overnight at 50° C.

(3) Evaporation was performed at 50° C. to obtain crystals of o-DNB.

(4) Centrifugation was performed at 3,500 rpm at room temperature for 3 minutes to remove the crystals.

(5) Paper chromatography was performed overnight (developing solution of 1-butanol:water:acetic acid at the ratio of 4:1:1).

(6) Paper was dried, and then the portion showing UV absorption was excised and cut into pieces, and immersed in water to perform extraction overnight.

(7) The solution was filtered by using a nitrocellulose filter (pore size: 5.0 μm).

(8) Evaporation was performed at 50° C. again.

(9) The resulting product was lyophilized, and thereby, SOPC powder was obtained.

<4> Production of L-DOPA Using Mutant tyrR Gene-Introduced Strains

The following 5 strains were used for L-DOPA production:

-   -   Control strain (pTK631/AJ2985ΔtyrR::kan+)     -   YG38 strain (tyrR+/AJ2985ΔtyrR::kan+)     -   YG40 strain (tyrR+NT/AJ2985ΔtyrR::kan+)     -   AH181 strain (tyrR+NT+Cen/AJ2985ΔtyrR::kan+)     -   AH184 strain (tyrR+NT+Cen+CT/AJ2985ΔtyrR::kan+)

The vector pTK631 used in the control strain is described in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 66, pp. 4764-4771 (2000).

First, each of the aforementioned strains was cultured on a refresh slant (basal medium added with 2% of agar and adjusted to pH 7.5 at 31.5° C. for 24 hours. One loop of cells grown on the refresh slant were inoculated into 100 mL of the aforementioned medium with or without addition of 0.2% tyrosine in a 500-mL Sakaguchi flask, and cultured at 28° C. for 17 hours with shaking at 140 rpm. Growth of all the strains on the slant was not very different when compared with each other.

After completion of the culture, 5 mL of the culture was centrifuged (3000 rpm, 15 minutes) to collect the cells. The obtained cells were suspended in 5 mL of a substrate solution having the following composition and reacted at 15° C. for 1 hour.

<Substrate solution for determining TPL activity> Sodium pyruvate 1.55 g/dl Catechol 1.0 g/dl Ammonium chloride 4.7 g/dl Ammonium nitrate 0.13 g/dl Sodium sulfite 0.27 g/dl EDTA-2Na 0.4 g/dl pH 8.0 (adjusted with aqueous ammonia immediately before the reaction)

After completion of the reaction, the reaction mixture was adjusted to a pH below 1.0 with hydrochloric acid and further diluted 100 times, and then the amount of produced L-DOPA was analyzed by HPLC. The amounts of cells and amounts of produced L-DOPA are shown in Table 4. In the column of “Tyrosine”, “+” indicates addition of 0.2% tyrosine, and “−” indicates no addition of tyrosine.

TABLE 4 Amount of DOPA-producing Amount of cells DOPA (g/dl) activity of cells Evaluated strain Tyrosine in culture (g/dl) produced (g/g/hr) Control strain + 0.25 0.000 0.00 (vector) − 0.31 0.000 0.00 YG38 strain + 0.34 0.290 0.85 (wild-type TyrR) − 0.28 0.076 0.27 YG40 strain + 0.22 0.387 1.76 (NT) − 0.20 0.210 1.05 AH181 strain + 0.30 0.894 2.98 (NT + Cen) − 0.32 0.677 2.13 AH184 strain + 0.29 0.995 3.41 (NT + Cen + CT) − 0.32 1.112 3.48

Table 4 shows that both the amount of L-DOPA produced and L-DOPA-producing activity per unit cell weight were markedly increased by introduction of the Cen mutation or Cen and CT mutations into the known mutant tyrosine repressor gene having the NT mutation described in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2001-238678. The strain transformed with the mutant tyrosine repressor having the NT mutation as well as the strain transformed with the wild-type tyrosine repressor required tyrosine to produce a sufficient amount of L-DOPA and to exhibit sufficient L-DOPA-producing activity. On the other hand, the amount of L-DOPA produced and L-DOPA-producing activity per unit cell weight of the strain transformed with the Cen or Cen+CT mutation(s) in combination with NT mutation (NT+Cen or NT+Cen+CT) were almost the same between the medium containing tyrosine and the medium without tyrosine, and, in particular, NT+Cen+CT strain showed a higher amount of produced L-DOPA and higher L-DOPA-producing activity per unit cell weight in the absence of tyrosine than in the presence of tyrosine. That is, although a conventional method for producing TPL used for L-DOPA production requires tyrosine to induce TPL expression, this induction by tyrosine has been made unnecessary by the present invention.

<5> Evaluation of Mutant TyrR in Escherichia coli

To examine whether the mutant tyrosine repressor (TyrR) of the present invention could also activate transcription from the TPL gene promoter of Pantoea agglomerans in Escherichia coli, the following experiment was performed. First, in order to observe transcriptional activity of the mutant TyrR based on β-galactosidase activity, a reporter plasmid containing the lacZ gene encoding β-galactosidase linked to the tpl promoter of Pantoea agglomerans (Φ(tpl‘-’lacZ) gene) was constructed. A 5.9 kb HindIII-SalI fragment containing the Φ(tpl‘-’lacZ) gene was excised from pTK1004 and ligated to a fragment obtained by digesting pBR322 with HindIII and SalI, and thereby, plasmid pAH276 containing the Φ(tpl‘-’lacZ) gene as shown in FIG. 8 was obtained.

The aforementioned pTK1004 was prepared as follows. First, an 8.6 kb SacI-SacII fragment excised from pTK312 (Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2001-238678) and blunt-ended, and a 1.1 kb SacI-BamHI fragment excised from pMC1871 (Pharmacia) and blunt-ended were ligated to obtain pTK1003. Then, a 0.5 kb XmnI fragment excised from pTrc99A (Pharmacia) was inserted into pTK1003 at the NcoI site (blunt-ended) to obtain pTK1004.

An Escherichia coli ΔtyrRΔlac strain, TK743, deficient in endogenous tyrR gene and lacZ gene, was transformed with each of the 4 kinds of the plasmids, i.e., a control plasmid pTK631, pTK919 containing a wild-type tyrR gene, pTK922 containing the tyrR (V67A Y72C E201G) gene, and pAH178 containing the tyrR (V67A Y72C E201G N324D A503T) gene. The obtained transformants were further transformed with the aforementioned Φ(tpl‘-’lacZ) reporter plasmid pAH276. The obtained strains were precultured in LB medium, LB medium containing 1 mM tyrosine and LB medium containing 1 mM phenylalanine overnight at 37° C., respectively. Then, the culture was collected and inoculated into 100-fold volume of a main culture medium, and the main culture was performed in each fresh medium at 37° C. Then, the β-galactosidase activity was determined when OD₆₀₀ reached 0.5.

As shown in FIG. 9, in the LB medium without tyrosine, the strain containing TyrR (V67A Y72C E201G) showed β-galactosidase activity about 7 times higher than that of the strain containing the wild-type TyrR, and the strain containing TyrR (V67A Y72C E201G N324D A503T) showed β-galactosidase activity about 22 times higher than that of the strain containing the wild-type TyrR. Furthermore, these strains showed β-galactosidase activity about 8 times or 10 times higher than the strain containing the wild-type TyrR in the LB medium added with 1 mM phenylalanine, and showed β-galactosidase activity about 4.5 times or 17 times higher than the strain containing the wild-type TyrR in the LB medium added with 1 mM tyrosine. Induction by tyrosine or phenylalanine was hardly observed in the strain containing the wild-type TyrR, which was maybe because the LB medium originally contained large amounts of these aromatic amino acids. From these results, it was revealed that the mutant TyrR increased transcription from the tpl promoter even in Escherichia coli in the absence of tyrosine.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

L-DOPA is useful in the treatment of Parkinson's disease or the like, and can be efficiently produced using recombinant TPL or a microorganism expressing high amounts of TPL obtained using the mutant tyrosine repressor of the present invention.

While the invention has been described in detail with reference to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that various changes can be made, and equivalents employed, without departing from the scope of the invention. Each of the aforementioned documents, as well as the foreign priority document, JP 2004-095147, is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. 

1-6. (canceled)
 7. A DNA encoding a mutant tyrosine repressor which comprises mutations in the amino acid sequence at positions selected from the group consisting of: (a) position 67, position 72, position 201, and position 503; (b) position 324 and position 503; (c) position 67, position 72, position 201, position 324, and position 503; (d) position 67, position 72, position 201, and position 324, wherein said positions are as shown in SEQ ID NO: 2, and wherein said tyrosine repressor is encoded by a polynucleotide which hybridizes under stringent conditions to the polynucleotide having nucleotide numbers 442 to 2004 in SEQ ID NO: 1, and wherein said stringent conditions comprise washing in 0.1×SSC and 0.1% SDS at 65° C.
 8. An Escherichia or Pantoea bacterium which is transformed with said DNA according to claim
 7. 9. The Escherichia or Pantoea bacterium according to claim 8, further comprising a tyrosine phenol-lyase structural gene operably linked to a tyrosine phenol-lyase gene promoter. 10-11. (canceled)
 12. A method for producing L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine comprising (a) allowing said Escherichia or Pantoea bacterium according to claim 8 to act on a mixture selected from the group consisting of (1) catechol, pyruvic acid and ammonia, and (2) catechol and serine, and (b) collecting said L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine.
 13. The method for producing L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine according to claim 12, wherein said bacterium is grown in the absence of tyrosine. 14-15. (canceled)
 16. A DNA encoding a mutant tyrosine repressor which does not require tyrosine to induce expression of a tyrosine phenol-lyase gene, comprising mutations at positions selected from the group consisting of: (a) position 67, position 72, position 201 and position 503; (b) position 324 and position 503; (c) position 67, position 72, position 201, position 324, and position 503; (d) position 67, position 72, position 201, and position 324, wherein said positions represent the positions in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2, and wherein said mutant tyrosine repressor has a homology of 95% or more to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
 2. 17. An Escherichia or Pantoea bacterium which is transformed with said DNA according to claim
 16. 18. The Escherichia or Pantoea bacterium according to claim 17, further comprising a tyrosine phenol-lyase structural gene operably linked to a tyrosine phenol-lyase gene promoter. 19-20. (canceled)
 21. A method for producing L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine comprising (a) allowing said Escherichia or Pantoea bacterium according to claim 17 to act on a mixture selected from the group consisting of (1) catechol, pyruvic acid, and ammonia, and (2) catechol and serine, and (b) collecting said L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine.
 22. The method for producing L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine according to claim 21, wherein said bacterium is grown in the absence of tyrosine.
 23. The DNA of claim 7, wherein said repressor does not require tyrosine to induce expression of a tyrosine phenol-lyase gene.
 24. The DNA according to claim 7, wherein said mutation at position 67 is an alanine, said mutation at position 72 is a cysteine, said mutation at position 201 is a glycine, said mutation at position 324 is an aspartic acid, and said mutation at position 503 is a threonine.
 25. The DNA according to claim 7, wherein said mutant tyrosine repressor includes substitution, deletion, insertion, addition or inversion of one to 20 amino acid residues at a position other than the positions listed in (a), (b), or (c), and wherein said mutant tyrosine repressor does not require tyrosine to induce expression of a tyrosine phenol-lyase gene.
 26. The DNA according to claim 7, wherein said repressor originates from Pantoea agglomerans prior to mutation.
 27. The DNA according to claim 26, wherein said repressor comprises the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 prior to mutation.
 28. The DNA of claim 16, wherein said mutation at position 67 is an alanine, said mutation at position 72 is a cysteine, said mutation at position 201 is a glycine, said mutation at position 324 is an aspartic acid, and said mutation at position 503 is a threonine. 